Many products which are provided to consumers are packaged in paperboard packages, cartons, containers or the like. Among the list of consumer products packaged in paperboard packages are granular detergents such as laundry detergents and dishwashing detergents. Granular detergents are generally used in relatively large volumes. Consequently, large volumes of these products are consumed each year. Due to a vast quantity of consumer products sold in granular form there is a desire to constantly improve the design of the packages which house these products.
An example of a package suitable for housing consumer products such as granular materials is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,986,420 issued to Gunn et al. on Jan. 22, 1991, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The Gunn et al. reference describes a rectangular package for housing granular materials. The package has two opposing apertures on its sidewalls. The package is provided with a flat strap handle, typically made from plastic, having a barb member at each end. One end of the handle is inserted into one of the apertures and the other is inserted into the other aperture so as to secure the handle to the package. When the package is lifted by the handle, the barb member on each end hooks underneath the outer body of the package which surrounds the aperture, thereby preventing the handle from pulling out of the aperture or otherwise detaching itself from the package.
Recently, in order to save natural resources, there has been a desire to make the handles of these packages from materials which can be recycled with the paperboard package so that the handle does not have to be separated from the package for recycling. However, the structure of the handle described in the Gunn reference and which is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,209 issued to Roberts et al. on Aug. 11, 1992, which is also hereby incorporated herein by reference, is adapted to made from materials having a relatively high strength such as plastic. If the handle described in the above-incorporated references were to be made out of paperboard, the handle would most likely rip or buckle at the barb sections during attempts to lift the package by the handle. This would be especially true when the package was rather large and a substantial amount of weight was being carried by the handle. Because paperboard easily tears, many of the handle designs which are used today are adapted to be made from materials such as plastic and simply cannot be made from paperboard.
There has therefore been a desire to design a paperboard handle which can be used with a paperboard package of the type described above which will not rip tear or break after multiple uses and which does not need to be separated from the package for recycling purposes.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a paperboard handle that is adapted to be attached to a paperboard package and which will not easily rip, tear or otherwise break when used to lift the package.
It is another object of the present invention to make such a paperboard handle so that it does not have to be separated from the package to be recycled.
The aforementioned and other objects of the invention will become more apparent hereinafter.